Arnold Friend, one of the two main characters in the short story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” written by Joyce Carol Oates, is looked upon as a controversial character. Friend has many distinct character traits, but it is often argued whether those traits are good or bad. Some view Friend as a savior figure, while others see him as a satanic representation. Throughout the story, Oates uses many symbols to convey Friend’s character. Arnold Friend is portrayed as a savior through the symbolic usage of music, cars, and clothing. One symbol that portrays Arnold Friend as a savior figure is music. Music symbolizes Connie’s happiness. Throughout the story, music gives Connie a sense of contentment and serenity. When Connie goes with …show more content…
The cars are a symbolic representation of religion. When Connie first sees Friend’s car coming up her driveway, “she [whispers] ‘Christ. Christ’” (Oates 4). This is significant because it suggests that Connie recognizes Friend as a religious savior. Furthermore, the exterior of Friend’s car is covered in drawings of sorts. One of these drawings is a series of numbers. While talking to Connie about his car, Friend tells Connie that the “numbers are a secret code, [then reads] off the numbers 33, 19, 17” (Oates 4). This is essential because the numbers Friend reads have a religious meaning: As stated in an article written by Michele Theriot, “[t]he title of Oates’s story is taken almost directly from Judges 19:17… Judges is the 33rd book from the end of the Old Testament, the chapter is 19th, and the verse is the 17th” (Theriot n.p.). Judges 19:17 describes an old man giving respite to a traveler whom no one would offer hospitality to. The relief the old man gives to the traveler can be linked to the relief Friend, as a savior, could give to Connie. Alternatively, Mark Robson argues that his numerical table links Friend’s code of numbers not to Judges 19:17, but Genesis 19:17. Robson claims that because “Genesis 19:17 is a warning to Lot from angels to escape from Sodom… Arnold’s announcement of his secret code could well have been a warning sign for Connie to escape while she could” (Hurley n.p.). …show more content…
During her conversation with Friend, Connie spends a fair amount of time focusing on his clothing and appearance. The reason his attire is one of the main points of Connie’s focus may be that she subconsciously recognizes Friend as a savior. As stated in an article written by Mike Tierce and John Michael Crafton, “the description of Arnold Friend also fit[s] Bob Dylan” (Tierce and Crafton 2). This is imperative because it displays a direct tie between Friend and Dylan, who during his prime was a savior for his followers. On the other hand, some critics, such as Marie Urbanski, argue that Friend’s clothing makes him “Satan in appearance” (Urbanski 2). Urbanski claims that because of his distinct and somewhat unusual appearance Friend must be a satanic figure rather than a savior figure. However, Dylan was “perceived… to be a messiah”, and the similar appearance between Friend and Dylan conveys the idea that, like Dylan, Friend is also a messiah (Tierce and Crafton 2). The similarities between Friend and Dylan are expressed through Friend’s attire, and work to represent the fact that they are both savior figures. As stated in the article “Connie’s Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend”, Friend and Dylan are one and the same. The article explains that “Arnold Friend/Bob Dylan is a magical, musical messiah [who] frees [Connie] from the limitations of a fifteen year old girl” (Tierce and
Throughout “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Arnold Friend is a very intimidating and mysterious character that is hard to figure out. Arnold knows everything about Connie, a teenage girl that he has never met before. He is very persistent with getting Connie to run away from her awful teenage life at home with him. Arnold’s appearance adds even more mystery to who he actually is. Arnold has a roughed up look to him, a secret code painted on his car that can be interpreted as a Bible verse, and he can not stand steady on his feet, because of all of these attributes Arnold appears that he is possibly Satan.
Though, a significant area of difference comes from the description of his height and his charade to mask his small build. In the written version it speaks of Arnold being relatively wobbly or clumsy on his feet, the reason being his height, Arnold actually stuffs his rugged leather boots in order to appear taller than he truly is. Specifically, as he goes to step up on the front porch, “She looked to see Arnold Friend pause and then take a step toward the porch, lurching. He almost fell. But, like a clever drunken man, he managed to catch his balance. He wobbled in his high boots and grabbed hold of one of the porch posts.” The film never really gives any insight or physical cues that Friend isn’t steady on his feet, while the written rendition gives a brief cue but the true nature of his unsteady anor can only be discovered through reading the “Pied Piper of Tuscon” the article that led to the story. In every other aspect, Arnold Friend’s characterization is a direct match between the movie and story, down to the details of his car and suave
"Connie, don't fool around with me. I mean—I mean, don't fool around," he said, shaking his head. He laughed incredulously. He placed his sunglasses on top of his head, carefully, as if he were indeed wearing a wig…” (Oates 6). Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” highlights an altercation, meeting, conflict and dispute between a teenage girl, named Connie, and a psychotic rapist named Arnold Friend. Throughout their altercation, Arnold Friend tempts and encourages Connie to get in the car with him and lead her to a variety of possible dangerous situations, one of which includes her getting raped . There is no doubt that Joyce Carol Oates’ uses Arnold Friend in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” to symbolize the Devil and embody all of the evil and sinister forces that are present in our world. This becomes apparent when the reader focuses on how deranged Arnold Friend is and begins to
My definition of evil is in its most general context, is taken as the absence of that which is ascribed as being good. Often, evil is used to denote profound immorality. In this situation I would have to say Arnold’s friend most exemplifies evil. Arnold Friend could be an allegorical devil figure, the protagonist who lures Connie into riding off with him in his car, or, in the contrary, far more a grotesque portrait of a psychopathic killer masquerading as a teenager. However, he has all the traditional, sinister traits of that arch deceiver and source of grotesque terror, the devil, with his painted eyelashes, shaggy hair, and stuffed boots. In the story, Oates does make Arnold out to be a psychopathic stalker, but never objectively states the diabolical nature to his character.
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” focuses on two main characters, Connie and Arnold Friend. The two characters have extreme conflict throughout the short story and in the end only one wins. The literary device of characterization in the story helps to clarify the Greek and Biblical reasons for one character’s win and the other’s lose.
Arnold Friend takes advantage of Connie’s teenage innocence for something of a much more sinister purpose. Connie thought she had it all figured out until Arnold Friend came into her life and up her driveway on one summer, Sunday afternoon and made her realize how big and scary the world can be. Arnold embodies everything that Connie has dreamed about in a boy, but is in the most malevolent form of Connie’s dream boy. She always wanted to get away from her family because she has always felt as if she didn’t belong and Arnold can make this possible just in the most predatory way. She always thought sex would be sweet (and consensual) and that she would be in charge of how it progressed, Arnold strips her of the authority she’s held in any other encounter with a boy. The moral of the story is always be careful what you wish
Arnold Friend is similar to Satan in his characterization provided by Joyce Carol Oates. Arnold Friend disguises himself in ways to hide all his negative features from Connie, as he seems less threatening this way. Urbanski writes, “His features appear more ominous, his hair like a wig, his slitted eyes ‘like chips of broken
In the short story, Connie is a young, naïve, sassy, little girl who hates her mom and sister. According to Oates, “Connie wished her mother was dead” (324). Connie enjoys going out with her friends and going to a drive-in restaurant where the older kids hang out. Connie is innocent, but thinks about love and sex. She is desperate to appeal to boys and succeeds at it when a boy with shaggy black hair says to her, “Gonna get you, baby” (325). Her encounter with this boy will change her life forever, because he is the antagonist that influences Connie’s loss of innocence. On a Sunday afternoon, the boy, Arnold Friend, visits Connie and asks her to come for a ride, which she declines. But, Arnold Friend won’t take “no” for an answer and threatens to go in the house. For example when Connie says she will call the cops, Arnold says “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and come inside”
The mysterious Arnold Friend goes to Connie’s house. He tries to convince Connie to take a ride in his car. Most people will deny the offer, but seeing as though Connie is unruly, she is easily persuaded by Arnold . Arnold deceives Connie with his charm and ride. He takes her to a place where she does not know. We find that Mr. Friend is not so friendly, but a sick soul with a loose tongue. In addition to this I agree with author Christina Marsden Gills of “Short Story Criticism, vol.6” when she explains that:
The short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is full of symbolism that represents elements such as evil and loss of innocence. The symbolism is a crucial part of the story because it helps the reader to read between the lines and see beyond the obvious meanings of things. Some of the important symbols present in this story are Arnold's car, Arnold himself, and the doorway of Connie's family's house.
Rubin argues that Connie is dreaming and that’s why Arnold seems like the radio caster “indeed Arnold’s voice is perceived by Connie as being the same as that of the disc jockey on the radio.”(Rubin 212). Finally Rubin continues to say that the way Connie seems to be paralyzed is commonly reported by dreamers during a nightmare “Leaves her will paralyzed and she cannot even dial the phone for help. Such physical paralysis...is a phenomenon familiar to all dreamers.”(Rubin 212)A tertiary interpretation of Oates story is that of Joyce M Wegs who argues that Arnold is a ‘satanic figure.’ Wegs argues that Arnold is satan in disguise because of “the distortions in his appearance and behavior.” (Wegs 213) The final thing Wegs exemplifies to prove her point, is how unnatural Arnold’s “mysterious knowledge about her, her family, and her friends” is, and how “he is even able to see all the way to the
Stories have an opportunity to leave the reader with many different impressions. When you look a different characters within the stories the ones that leave the greatest impressions are the ones that tend to scare us. The figures in Bob Dylar’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have you been?”, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, and Stephen King’s “The Man in the Black Suite” all instill a bit of fear in the reader. They are symbols that represent the devil or devil like attributes in people and the uncertainties of human nature.
In the story “Where are you Going, Where Have you been?” Joyce Carol Oates tells us about a fifteen year old girl named Connie. Connie is confronted by a young man who is trying to persuade her to take a ride with him. He introduces himself as Arnold Friend and kindly asks her to come with him but she refused. He then threatens Connie and her family. She is then forced outside and leaves with Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend clearly symbolizes the devil through his physical traits, his knowledge of Connie, and his power over her kind of like he was hypnotizing her to go with him.
Arnold Friend imposes a devilish and menacing pressure upon Connie, who ultimate gives in, like a maiden entranced by a vampire's gaze. His appearance, sayings, and doing all combine to form a terrifying character that seems both reasonable and unlikely at the same time. There are people like Arnold Friend out there, not as incoherently assembled, and still he seems an extraordinary case of stalker. A small and even insignificant aside about his name, Arnold Friend, is that with the R's his name would read A'nold F'iend, or "An Old Fiend" i.e. the devil. But, regardless, Arnold Friend is very precisely portrayed as a corrupter of youths and a deflowerer of virgins. Without his useless sweet-nothings or his strange balance problem, he would come across less dangerous and alluring.
Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew